Movers and Shakers Club Awaits a D.E.C. Appointee

By BARBARA GERBASI

Published: May 11, 2003

ENVIRONMENTALISTS and Long Island's business community are casting anxious glances toward the empty chair of the director of the Long Island region of the Department of Environmental Conservation. Raymond Cowen retired at the end of March after 12 years in the post, leaving a gap in the short list of the most influential officials on the Island.

''The director of the D.E.C. is one of the most powerful non-elective positions,'' said Mitchell Pally, who also qualifies for the list as vice president of the Long Island Association, the region's leading business organization. ''The department's decisions affect day-to-day environmental regulations and impact on all aspects of Long Island life. Mr. Cowen understood the need to strike a balance among the various constituaries. We were upset to see him leave.''

The regional director oversees five divisions and a staff of 143. Under his jurisdiction are the Offices of Public Protection; Water and Environmental Remediation; Air, Solid Waste and Hazardous Materials; and Natural Resources. The Long Island regional office rules on some 5,000 permit applications each year on projects ranging from homeowners seeking to construct backyard docks to developers submitting environmental impact statements for the industrial and commercial projects of all shapes and sizes. It also enforces regulations on pesticide spraying, sewage treatment and garbage disposal.

By all accounts, Mr. Cowen was that rare public official who won accolades from business types, environmentalists and other regulators. ''Ray Cowen was a statesman,'' said Thomas Isles, director of planning for Suffolk County.

Wilbur Breslin, a Garden City-based developer whose shopping centers have helped define suburban sprawl, appeared before Mr. Cowen hundreds of times. ''He was always fair-minded,'' Mr. Breslin said. ''He tried to be objective and meaningful, not that we always got what we wanted.''

''Dealing with pressure from developers was one of the harder parts of my job,'' said Mr. Cowen, who plans to move to Florida. ''I always tried to be fair and do the right thing.''

It is up to Governor Pataki to appoint a permanent director. Matthew Burns, a spokesman for the D.E.C., said that he was unable to comment on personnel matters and that there wasn't a time frame for the appointment. Meanwhile speculation as to who will sit in Mr. Cowen's chair abound. Among those mentioned are the Suffolk deputy county executive, Peter Scully; Assemblyman Fred Thiele, a Sag Harbor Republican; Kevin Law, a Garden City attorney; Linda Spahr, assistant regional director for Long Island's state parks; and Anthony Cava, Mr. Cowen's deputy and formerly the D.E.C.'s regional solid and hazardous materials engineer.

Mr. Pally said the business community's favorites are Mr. Scully and Mr. Law. Mr. Scully was Suffolk's parks commissioner and from 1991 to1997 was president of the Islip Resource Recovery Agency and commissioner of environmental control for the Town of Islip. He acknowledged his interest in the position, saying that it would be a ''natural extension of both his professional and community interests.''

Ms. Spahr declined to comment, saying she was still an employee of the state Parks Department. Numerous calls to the D.E.C. press office to speak with Mr. Cava were not returned.

Several officials were at pains to try to stifle speculation that Mr. Pataki, under intense pressure to cut costs, may use the vacancy as an opportunity to consolidate some of the agency's nine regional offices, perhaps by combining the Long Island office, which is based in Stony Brook, with the New York region.

''We would be opposed to such a move,'' Mr. Pally said. ''Long Island has different issues, different constituents and different politics. It should remain separate.''

Mr. Pally's comments were echoed by Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Commission and one of the Island's most tenacious environmental advocates.

''I would like to see the position go to an environmentalist who is also a Long Islander,'' he said. ''Long Island issues are unique in all the state and would be seriously undercut by combining with a region with urban related issues.

''An excellent candidate for that position would be Assemblyman Thiele,'' Mr. Amper said. ''He has usable memory of the Pine Barrens preservation process and he is a goal-oriented, outstanding lawyer with a good reputation.''

Mr. Cowen also leaves vacant a seat on the Central Pine Barrens Commission, which deals with issues in the 100,000-acre Pine Barrens region. Reached in Albany, Mr. Thiele said that he would like to serve on the Pine Barrens Commission if asked but is not interested in replacing Mr. Cowen at the D.E.C.

Advocates and officials offered a variety of issues and priorities for the new director. ''What with the build-out of Suffolk and Nassau counties, one of the biggest concerns is open space preservation,'' Mr. Isles said. ''The new director must be able to cross political lines in making his decisions and he must also shoulder responsibility for the future of the Island's estuaries.''

''Brownfield redevelopment is an important issue,'' said James Tripp, general counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. ''Transportation and the effect of emissions on the region's air quality must also be addressed.''

Paul Rabinovitch, director of the Nature Conservancy, pointed to cutbacks at the regional D.E.C., most notably in the Bureau of Real Property, where three vacancies have not been filled, and in the Division of Forest Rangers, where two positions for wildlife biologists remain vacant. ''The new director will have to come up with ways to cope with the needs left by the vacancies,'' Mr. Rabinovitch said.

Assemblyman Thiele said it was most important ''that the new director possess good people skills, be a good listener and hear the concerns of the various stakeholders.''

The former director did not say who he thought should succeed him, but he added one more prerequisite. ''Above all he should be a protector of the environment,'' Mr. Cowen said.

Photo: Raymond Cowen, ex-head of the Long Island region of the D.E.C. (Maxine Hicks)(pg. 17)